ClutchFans Game Thread: Rockets @ Grizzlies 1/14/2020

This team will be above average but second round fodder as long as these gaping holes continue to exist.

1) We don’t have the personnel to be anything besides a slightly below average defensive team

2) We rely entirely too much on one man and have no answer when he struggles. Harden seeking out ISO’s every single possession isn’t a championship level offense.

3) MDA’s rotations are mystifying at times. What is Tucker doing that warrants more minutes at center than Hartenstein? I just don’t see it. We go small and it almost always costs us on the boards.

4) Our forwards just aren’t good enough. Both House and Tucker are really bench players being forced to start. That’s probably good enough to win ~50 regular season games but it’s not championship level.

5) We have too many older players. Guys like Nene, Chandler and Thabo have absolutely no business on this team. That’s not on MDA, that’s on Morey and Tilman. We need to get younger and more athletic, not older and slower. Getting more vets is fine (it’s actually preferable) but these vets need to be in their primes (or on the tail end). Has been players don’t help.

6)Our ownership sucks. Tilman is way too involved in the basketball product. He needs to allow his basketball staff to make independent decisions about basketball. Tilman made a big mistake turning MDA into a lame duck. It’s clear MDA isn’t the coach to take us to the promised land so just move on from him. Holding on to him for another year made no sense....but Tilman is cheap lol.

 

This is ABSOLUTELY the problem I have with anyone complaining about Harden

Add Rivers and even EGo into it . . . .

Can anyone besides Westie and Harden Drive and kick??

Every pass assist by a anyone but Harden looks so haphazard and 50 50 it will get where it wants to go .
Literally 3 times I saw passes thrown right to a defender
Harden has to run down the inbound pass cause PJ threw it to a non looking capela

Rocket River

 

everything about this organization, sans harden, is a fuking disaster

 

Don't give me that crap. They know their job, so they should be used to it. They have the easiest job in the world with Harden as the playmaker. All they have to do is hit their shots.

Passing it around is pretty pointless with this set of players. None of them are good enough to pass around, dribble and to make things happen besides Harden and Westbrook. I guarantee you if Harden had the ball less, we'd lose far more games and we wouldn't even make the playoffs.

We have a terrible coach. We have a terrible defense. Harden's supporting cast is pretty much useless most nights. I have no clue why we keep resting Westbrook.... when we clearly don't have the depth for it.

 

Been here since 99. Deal with it playboi.

 

Y

I agree I know harden is going to dribble alot but the problem I have is when he cant beat his man on the first 2 tries he still forces up a shot. We need a coach that can actually coach

 

It's a marathon. We need to be sure that we have our key guys when it counts

 

Another loss. A sorry ass effort. Why didn't Hardenstein play more? That small ball don't work anymore. All teams get some 3 point shooters now. Most of them has younger, and taller players. Looks like Rockets will be a 4 or 5 seed. Oh well now the Astros. Oh, forget than.

 

That year too didn't have the parity of this year. The Rockets were practically the only team willing to go after the Warriors while the other teams stood aside.

This year is about parity, the standings pretty much say this. The Lakers are not as good as their record or the Bucks, they just win these games more. Besides, the Grizzlies are not some scrub gimme game, they are now 8-2 in their last 10 and only 3 games from being .500

It really shouldn't be a surprise that this was going to be a toss up game with Russ sitting out.

 

Harden and westbrook really mask a lot of fundamental problems with this roster and this coaching.

 

Yep.

This offense will always bog down with Harden playing like this....

I will say that Westbrook and good cp3 help though because they can creat when they are passes the ball in those situations.

But we aren’t going to have that level of player at all the other positions so it just it what it is as long as they keep playing like this.

 

Lol, Im fine, I see bad takes here all the time, you are just another drop in the turd bucket.

 

I love James and Mike but we gotta change the offense. It’s ran it’s course. It’s gotta be hard to get a rhythm watching James dribble, dribble then pass to you with the clock running down. James it’s okay to take the wide open mid range too.

 

Scrubs were scoring in Mchale's offense. This is 100 % a Dantoni problem. He thinks Harden is God.

 

They are NBA players dude. I've seen scrub teams pass it around and create easy buckets off of passes without dribbling the ball.

It's called practicing it. The Rockets don't do it. This offensive system is designed for a player like Harden to have a high ass usage rate while teammates just stand around not having the ability to generate any rhythm whatsoever.

 

Harden's line is ugly tonight. 41 absolute points, but the relative numbers are bad.

But, like, I see how he falls into this trap of never passing in games and running things more into the ground. He brings the ball up, and his four teammates stand stock still the whole time. And not in easy positions to receive a pass. Two are always cemented at the corners, so as far away from Harden as they can get. (Also, basically impossible to defend the fast break coming from those positions.) If he takes the ball to the side, NO ONE comes to help him if he stops dribbling or gets trapped. I was watching. Capela had to come do it on one play towards the end. No one was coming. The team just stands around and waits for James (or Russ) to throw them the ball like a pitching machine.

Those same players are average-at-best shooters from three and abysmal at making layups. I'm sure sometimes James is like, "Well, if I'm going to have to do all this work to open up shots for you guys, and you're going to blow it, I think I'll just do it myself." I can understand that mentality even if it makes things worse at times.

This ought to be called the "statue offense" or the "running through the graveyard offense," because it's just Harden running around amidst a bunch of entities fixed to their places like stone.

 

Im not nearly as mad about this loss as the rest of you seem to be. I knew it was going to be tough without Westbrook on the road. The grizz have been on fire lately and obviously have a PG who can really push the ball. The refs gave them great homecooking also. Another reason by playing on the road is tough.

I want to say to scrap this load management plan but if it can help us later on maybe it's worth it. We have a few more B2Bs coming up though against playoff teams. That's tough to stomach a loss while also giving them a win but let's just see what happens man

 

I'm with you on that. We might as well move eg in the starting line up

 

Not sure what people expect.

Getting sick of Westbrook sitting every single back to back, even when there is plenty of rest. I thought Paul was dealt because he missed games.

Tucker is old, hurt and over used. He shouldn’t be playing 35 minutes a night. Danuel House isn’t good enough to be starting or playing a lot of minutes. His defense is inconsistent and he should be better in transition defense but he sucks at it.

Gordon is a legitimate rotation guy and he is coming around.

Basically you have Harden, Capela and Gordon.... that’s it.

This whole thing as is, is completely built on Harden and Tucker staying healthy with no room for error.

Don’t expect much at the deadline. If Tillman were serious he wouldn’t have forced the Anderson deal or at least would have taken back extra salary in the Westbrook deal. Don’t count on or expect any deal with the Rockets moving 4-5 players to cobble together for someone.

 

You view it as "blaming" PJ. I view it as we need to get PJ into a role where he is comfortable. Our forward depth sucks.